A Brisbane based food blog written by a couple with a passion for food.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

LiuJi Chinese Restaurant

This used to be Yahoo Seafood Restaurant specializing in chinese malaysian cuisine and now it has become LiuJi Chinese Restaurant. We noticed the change round about a month ago as we frequent Just Soy Cafe located directly below them. Their huge flagging signs of lunch specials at $7.90 seemed to suggest perhaps only a change in management? We dined at Yahoo a few times both lunch and dinner and enjoyed it, so we thought to pop in to see what the new changes may be.

Seems to us that our guess is right. The old standing whiteboard sign of daily lunch specials remains, the interior is untouched and even this very familiar lunch menu still bears the name of Yahoo Seafood Restaurant. Ha! They should probably tape it out. Nothing new in store for us but no matter, we know what is good already.

Mr food hunter usually orders his default dish of stir-fried Hokkien Mee. His previous order was a sweet and sour pork which was not too bad, better than the ones from your average chinese buffet to say the least. And for today's lunch, he ordered from the specials board i.e. the Chicken Nasi Lemak (add $2 to change it to beef). Overall, the dish was average though there were some highlights from the separate components. The coconut rice had good aroma but was rather bland, the chicken curry was the usual chinese chicken curry which wasn't bad, the achar (pickled vegetables) was a good cooling aid and contrast to the spicy curry and egg sambal. The highlights were the egg sambal and the peanuts with ikan bilis (dried anchovies). This dish ain't spectacular but at $7.90, i wouldn't mind a second return.

Miss food hunter's default is the Penang Har Mee simply Prawn noodles and the Fish and Yam Mee Hoon Soup which is a vermicelli noodle in a subtle herbal soup. The former was chosen as a more robust soup was desired today. If you were to order out of the daily specials menu, you are guaranteed a generous serve! The bowl was filled with huge bundles of mixed yellow hokkien noodles and vermicelli in the prawn and pork broth. The soup base was good though lacking a tad bit the richness from a good prawn stock. Gone were the char-siew slices and in came the boiled pork and sadly, there were only 4 prawn halves atop the mountainous noodles. It seems that they have stinged on a few things but funny as it is, it wasn't too much of a big deal as i was just taking in spoonfuls of the different textured noodles together with the sweet yet savoury unctuous broth. Ahhhhh....the taste of home! For $8.90, it is the cheapest Har Mee one can find around town and so i shouldn't complain.

Towards the end of the meal, we thought to order the Ice Kachang; a south east asian coloured shaved ice dessert with red beans, fruit and jellies. We had it on our very last visit and it was the perfect original rendition. But it is now no more available though still on the menu.

Yahoo has a great dinner menu offering shared dishes that are not usually found in other restaurants for instance, the baked whole herbal chicken, which needs to be ordered a day in advance. We didn't get to steal a look at the dinner menu and wonder whether LiuJi has kept some of these more unique dishes?

About Us

We are a merry couple living in brisbane who love to explore and try all the flavours of the world. We indulge in an array of cuisines from east to west and everything in between. Nothing excites our appetites more than trying out new places to eat and sharing with our friends and families the discoveries we make. We hope our experiences may also excite you too. If you wish to contact us, our email is diesel13sg@hotmail.com.